Well here we are again, in that dull interlude, where football fans go a little crazy due to withdrawal symptoms. Of course we have internationals but they are boring as fuck so the rumour mill starts to churn out crap again.
Let's start, anyway, with the our first win of the season over Liverpool. It's always good to beat Liverpool at Anfield and although long gone are the days when I saw this fixture as "one of those games" that could go either way, it's still nice to get one over on them. I expected us to win and we did with some real stand out performances. It was great to see Poldi get on the score sheet with his first goal for us (and partially rescuing my fantasy league score) along with Diaby who was simply mustard, creating Lukas' goal along with other chances as we went forward. But once again Santi Cazorla was magnificent to watch, I saw him described as majestic before the game and he really is. It's a shame for him that the Spain squad is as good as it is because otherwise he'd be a regular. My dad said to me "once he scores, he'll be away", moments later he was embracing Gervinho after smashing the ball low under-ish Reina who didn't get down quick enough. A solid performance and scarily a third clean sheet in a row, maybe Steve Bould is starting to work his magic.
So, as I'm sure many of you know, the papers ran a story the other week quoting Sagna as saying something like "losing your best players, of course it affects you". Along with some talk about his contract which is set to run out in 2014. When asked whether Arsenal had contacted him over his contract he said "No, nothing". I can understand Sagna's frustration cause he reflects the mood of a lot of Arsenal fans, but I think he just needs to stop for a moment and take a look at the situation. His contract doesn't run out until 2014 and while I'd rather Arsenal just sorted it out I'm sure they will do so in their own time. As for this "ambition of the club" shit that RVP rolled out, the fans don't buy it, the club don't buy it and player shouldn't see it as an easy way out.
Moving on though, in his interview after the Liverpool game Arsene said that he was impressed with Diaby and he hoped he got through the Internationals OK. However he has picked up a muscular problem, which ruled him out of last nights game with Belarus. On the plus side Wenger isn't concerned saying he has a "small chance" of playing on Saturday which to me means he won't be playing on Saturday. Let's hope it isn't serious and he can get back to his killer form soon.
That's about it for now I'll be back with a pre-match report for the Southampton game on Friday. Until then enjoy your week!
